By Marty Sartini Garner on November 30, 2012

Ian MacKaye’s got this thing about hiatuses. Given that the six-year drought between records he’s released with partner Amy Farina is now quenched, and with Fugazi still a sleeping giant, it might be time to start talking about The Evens as something more than a side project. On The Odds, MacKaye and Farina—on baritone guitar and a minimal trap kit, respectively—don’t challenge their by-now established conventions, but wreak incredible havoc within them. At their wooliest, the pair sound like MacKaye’s other band stripped down for an in-store; the “jails in search of prisoners” chant that caps “Wanted Criminals” could’ve been taken from The Argument, while “Competing With the Till” is built on a bassline that feels ripped from the walls of 13 Songs. Oddly, The Evens are more compelling when they find themselves further afield from their weighted history, making Farina’s howls in the waning moments of “Architects Sleep” or MacKaye’s heavy strum in opener “King of Kings” pop on their own power.